Top 5 Free SSD Imaging Software for Windows 11 | 2023
Why Need SSD Imaging Software ?
SSD is short for Solid State Drives and has more advantages than traditional hard drive, such as, faster speed of reading and writing, shock resistance, lower power consumption, and no noise. Because of these advantages, the SSD makes you feel so smoothly while using it as boot drive. And you will get better performance indeed.
On top of wanting to use good performance, you also need to keep data on it safe. All of them are irreplaceable and precious, so you cannot afford to lose them. At this moment, you need to make a copy of files on the SSD disk so as to get them back quickly when something bad happens. If it's a system disk, the system partition and boot files will be included while moving SSD to larger SSD. Thus, you don't need to reinstall Windows from scratch.
Free SSD Imaging Software List for Windows (Top 5)
There are many vendors of disk imaging software on the market, many of which have been in circulation for a long time and are very stable and not prone to virus infection. We have studied the market and come up with a list of some very reliable disk imaging software.
- #1. Qiling Disk Master
- #2. Acronis Cyber Protect
- #3. Macrium Reflect
- #4. Clonezilla
- #5. R-Drive Image
#1. Qiling Disk Master
Qiling Disk Master Standard is one of the best free SSD imaging software, which works well in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP. This tool has various features that make it a good choice in the list. It is embedded with the latest cloning technology and is able to clone a hard drive to another drive in a fast, secure, and easy way. Qiling supports a wide range of hard drives, including HDDs, SATA SSDs, NVMe M.2 SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards, etc.
💡 Highlighted Features:
- It provides you with Intelligent Clone and Sector-by-Sector Clone. You can clone SSD to larger SSD or clone HDD to smaller SSD.
- It provides you with System Clone, Disk Clone and Partition Clone.
- It provides you with System Backup, Disk Backup, File Backup, Outlook Backup, Cloud Backup and Partition Backup.
- Run cloning without interrupting your work.
- Its SSD Alignment feature improves SSD’s performance with 4K partition alignment, and prolongs its lifespan if you clone to an SSD.
| Pros | Cons |
|
+ Instant customer support |
- Cost more to get full features - No support for Mac or Linux |
#2. Acronis Cyber Protect
Acronis Cyber Protect (previously called Acronis True Image) is a combination of a disk imaging and file backup tool. It is available for various operating systems and also includes anti-malware software. The software is used by technicians to deploy operating systems on computers, and by academics to help recover computers after analyzing how viruses infect them. The software can clone content from one physical storage device (such as an SSD, HDD, or NVMe) to another drive.
💡 Highlighted Features:
- Provides the best security services to ensure data privacy.
- It offers multiple backup types that are compatible with different tools.
- It also provides a unique feature of clipboard control that prevents any kind of data leakage.
- Encryption of removable media makes it easier to keep data safe.
- Even the backups of data are encrypted and decrypted only by the server and the client.
| Pros | Cons |
|
+ Comprehensive protection |
- Cost more to get full features |
#3. Macrium Reflect
Macrium Reflect is a backup utility for Microsoft Windows. It uses the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy service to create disk image and file backup archives to ensure the accuracy of "point-in-time" data.Macrium Reflect can back up entire partitions or individual files and folders to a compressed, loadable archive file that can be used to recover exact images of partitions on the same drive for disaster recovery, or to a new drive for data migration.
💡 Highlighted Features:
- Make instant backups to ensure data security.
- Efficient SSD trimming support, making it easier to manage your SSD-based operations.
- Predefined templates to backup data.
- It provides security against ransomware and other threats to your backups.
| Pros | Cons |
|
+ Easy to use |
- Limited free version - No cloud backup - No file synchronization - Single user- $69.95 |
#4. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a set of open source drive cloning, drive imaging, and system deployment tools for simplifying the deployment and maintenance of a group of computers. Clonezilla is used to deploy operating systems to computers by imaging one computer and then deploying that image to one or more systems. It integrates with several other open source programs to provide cloning and imaging capabilities. As an SSD imaging software. You can use it to easily clone larger disk to smaller disk.
💡 Highlighted Features:
- This is an open source tool that allows users to customize it to their requirements.
- It supports MBR (Master Boot Record) GPT (GUID partition table).
- The tool allows the user to save the image of a device on multiple devices.
- It is compatible with all OS (Operating Systems), even Linux.
- The tool is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption which makes it very secure.
| Pros | Cons |
|
+ Open-source and free |
- Requires some technical knowledge - Limited support options - No incremental backups |
#5. R-Drive Image
R-Drive Image is a disk imaging and backup software designed for Windows operating systems. It allows users to create a copy of an entire hard disk or a specific partition and save it as an image file. The image file can be used to recover data in case of system failure, data corruption or virus attack.
💡 Highlighted Features:
- It offers advanced drive imaging features that make it easier to copy disks one by one.
- The tool also offers an image recovery feature that makes it easier to recover deleted or corrupted images.
- The tool has a schedule backup feature that allows users to automatically schedule backups.
- R-Drive Image supports multiple file systems, making it easier to image various files.
- The application also supports various partitioning schemes.
| Pros | Cons |
|
+ Compression and encryption |
- Limited operating system support - No cloud backup - No disk defragmentation |
How to Image SSD in Windows 11 with Qiling Disk Master
Here I'll introduce you 2 imaging methods to help you image SSD, you can choose based on your purpose. Please connect your SSD with your computer first and make sure it can be detected by Windows.
☞ Method 1: Create SSD Image in Windows 11 with Disk Backup
Disk Backup is a way of imaging the source. It will generate an image of .afi (file backup) or .fvd format (system, partition or disk backup). In this case, you are unable to open and check the source directly in Windows File Explorer. You need to restore the backup image first, and then you can check it.
- Launch the best free disk imaging software - Qiling Disk Master, select Backup > Disk Backup subsequently. Then follow the wizard.
☞ Method 2: Create SSD Image in Windows 11 with Disk Clone
The cloning method only keep the current status when you clone SSD disk, and it's much useful for replacing laptop hard drive or upgrading SSD to larger SSD. The format of the source is still retained after clone. And you can directly check the content after clone.
- Launch the SSD cloning software, choose Disk Clone under Clone tab. Then follow the wizard.
Final Words
The article lists 5 free SSD imaging software for you. You can choose the one you like the most after reading the details. After comparing them, I recommend Qiling Disk Master. With its help, you can easily create SSD images in Windows 11/10/8/7.
Moreover, Qiling Disk Master Professional is capable of creating incremental or differential backup to save more storage space, delete old backup image to free up disk space for new backup, migrating only Windows 10 to SSD while the target disk has insufficient space, etc.
Anyway, it's an excellent software to protect your data! Just download it to have a try! For unlimited PCs or servers, try Qiling Disk Master Technician or Technician Plus edition.
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